Hill Sprints

I elected to continue making Monday a rest day. I decided today would be an easy 3 miles, followed by some hill sprints to add some strength. I hadn't run the Schuykill Banks loop in awhile so I decided that it was time for that.

My quad felt kind of funny early on, but after I got going, that quickly went away. After about half a mile, I was surprised as a women went by me. I wisely didn't go with her that early on. I could've picked it up and battled with her, but I decided to keep it somewhat easy.

She actually still got me to push fairly hard though, as I didn't want to fall too far from her. I got to the turnaround about 50 yards behind her and was hoping she'd turnaround, but instead she got off the path. I was hoping to actually try to battle back on her in the second half. It's probably good that I didn't because I would've pushed too hard.

I was passed on the way back by another strong runner. I decided to let him go as well. I was shocked at how many fast runners seemed to be out this morning. Maybe everyone is tuning up for the half marathon in Philly this weekend. I passed a bunch of people that were flying in the opposite direction too.

It's really a fine line that I'm walking when it comes to running by the river. There are a lot of slower runners, but quite a few competitive ones too. That gets me running faster and at a better pace, which will help me in the race. I don't want to do that too frequently though or I could get injured. I need to get a happy balance. Today, it forced me to push harder, but still stay back and left something in the tank.

Today's pace wasn't easy, but it wasn't overly taxing either. After passing a runner towards the end, I sped up and left him in my dust. Following that, I slowed a bit towards the finish and felt comfortable.

After the run, I decided to do some hill sprints behind the Art Museum. There's a nice hill there and I prefer it over the steps in the front. After the hills killed me on Saturday's long run, I decided that I need to incorporate more hill work. I was kind of thinking about that lately anyways. Saturday just brought it to the forefront.

The hill is about a hundred meters long and not too steep. I did four repeats. It actually felt a bit easy, but I didn't want to overdo it on the first session. If I feel stronger when I do these again on Thursday, then I'll add one or two more.

All of the repeats went smoothly with me sprinting up the hill and then walking back down it. I wish I had chosen a steeper hill or that I really had a good option for a steeper hill. On the fourth and final one, I added a continuation of about 25 meters to the hill. This portion was much steeper and my legs felt it much more. I'll probably add that part to my repeats on Thursday as well.

A friend from high school is training for the marathon too and just developed an injury. I tried giving him some advice. Hopefully it'll help. I've been reading and learning so much about running lately. I think back to when I ran back in 2000 and really had no clue what I was doing. I had no training plan or anything. I just went out and ran. It feels good to be gathering more knowledge. I'm eager to learn even more about the sport.

Tomorrow will be the longest mid week workout to date. I'll be running 7 miles. I will likely do a Kelly Drive out and back. Hopefully I won't have lingering effects from the hill sprints. Right now, I feel pretty good. This weekend is a cutback week, with a long run of only 10 miles. I just looked at the calendar and can't believe that it'll be two weeks from Saturday that I'll be running the Lancaster Half Marathon. Time is sure flying!

3 miles - 23:35 (7:52 pace)